Last week, I was reminded of the importance in an estate planning context of having at least one backup executor, particularly in a situation where only one executor is appointed initially.
The case last week (admittedly it involved the adviser’s client utilising an online will service) was a situation where a will maker had appointed his brother as his executor.
In rather unfortunate circumstances, both the will maker and his brother died in relatively close succession to each other.
As the will maker had not appointed any backup executor and the executor that he had appointed had died, then the executor under the brother’s will (his wife who was estranged from the will maker) became the executor for the will maker.
For all concerned, this outcome, at best, was unintended.
With the aid of hindsight, it could have been easily solved with the appointment of a backup executor.